“ At the cross, at the cross I surrender my life. I'm in awe of You. I'm in awe of You. Where Your love ran red and my sin washed white. I owe all to You. I owe all to You, Jesus.”

1 John 5:14-15

14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Do we have confidence that our prayers will be answered? As we know, sometimes they are and sometimes they are not answered the way we want them to be? However, are we seeking answers from GOD and we do not even know Him? We are in sin and asking for His blessings? We are not in His Word and still asking for answered prayers from above? So the real question here in verse 14 is are asking according to His will? Ouch, right?

So I would like to talk about a few things that surely will stop are prayers from getting above our ceilings in our homes.

Selfish Motives

I am a selfish human and so aren’t the rest of us too. We live in our flesh and not in the Spirit a lot of times in our lives. We often put our own interests or agendas before GOD’s or others. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. James 4:3. We ask for the wrong motive. GOD hears no such prayers asking for something that would satisfy our own lustful needs.

Unforgiving Heart

We have been forgiven from GOD for the greatest offenses to Him. We have and still at times are unrepentantly transgressing the Law of GOD and then we ask slowly for forgivingness. Yet, we are often slow, sometimes for a lifetime, to forgive others, even family members, dearest of friends or our brothers and sisters in Christ. Why can we ask GOD for forgiveness and yet we cannot give forgiveness back to others?

Jesus tells us; 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25

Unconfessed Sin

Just like unforgiveness to others can hinder our prayers to our Father above, so can the refusal to confession of our own sins to GOD. We need to examine our hearts before we just assume GOD did not hear our prayers or it’s not His will now at this time. Are our sins a barrier between GOD because we have not confessed them to Him and seek His forgiveness? King David writes this in Psalm 66:18: 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

1 John: 1:9: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Not Reading the Scriptures

How do we expect GOD to answer our prayers if we are not even spending time in His Word? How do we get to know GOD? By the reading of His Word and in time in prayer seeking Him daily. The wisest man of this earth said this: 9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Proverbs 28:9. When reading the Bible, we are asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word of GOD to us and to encourage GOD to speak to us through His Holy Words. Are we thumbing our nose at the Word of GOD and yet expecting Him to answer our prayers and yet we wonder why they are not answered. I know best for my own walk with GOD my Father that when I am saturated in the Word of GOD, I know what to prayer for and understand better the answers of GOD’s will and not mine.

I’ll finish with this. Our prayers cannot be separated from our faith. In Luke 18 Jesus tells us with a parable with regards to the persistent widow (a good read for all of us today) that was designed to teach the persistence of prayer and not to lose heart. Our prayers may not be answered right away or even ever, but we need to understand the persistence in prayer and also if they are not being answer, we may need to examine ourselves to make sure we are right with GOD. Are we asking selfishly, have we walked away from His scriptures, are we not confessing our sins when they happen, not forgiven those that have hurt us or trespassed against us, having doubt about GOD the Father or anything else that will distance us from our Creator?

We need to examine our own hearts today, confessing our sins today, forgiving others today, spending time in His Word today and seeking that sweet communion with our Abba Father today.

“ Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! Thy wings shall my petition bear to Him whose truth and faithfulness. Engage the waiting soul to bless and since He bids me seek His face, Believe His Word and trust His grace, I’ll cast on Him my every care, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!”